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The Woman's Bible/Speeches, Letters and Miscellanous Writings
SPEECHES, LETTERS AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 12mo, 500 pp., cloth, five portraits. Price $2.00. This work will be similar in style and binding to Eighty Years and More, will contain valuable editorial notes by Theodore Stanton, A. M., and will be published in January, 1899. New York European Publishing Company And Paris THE WOMAN'S BIBLE. COMPLETE IN TWO PARTS. REVISING COMMITTEE. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford. Clara Bewick Colby. Rev. Augusta Chapin. Mary Seymour Howell. Josephine K. Henry. Mrs. Robert G. Ingersoll. Sarah A. Underwood. Catharine F. Stebbins. Ellen Battelle Dietrick. Ursula N. Gestefeld. Lillie Devereux Blake. Matilda Joslyn Gage. Rev. Olympia Brown. Frances Ellen Burr. Clara B. Neyman. Helen H. Gardener. Charlotte Beebe Wilbour. Lucinda B. Chandler. Louisa Southworth. Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, Finland. Ursula M. Bright, England. Irma von Troll-Borostyani, Austria. Priscilla Bright McLaren, Scotland. Isabelle Bogelot, France. PART I. A 12mo, 160 pp. paper. Third American and Second English Edition. Twentieth Thousand. Price 50 Cents. It contains Comments on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lillie Devereux Blake, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Louisa Southworth, Frances Ellen Burr. PART II. A 12mo, 217 pp. paper. First American Edition, Ten Thousand. Price 50 Cents. It contains Comments on The Old and New Testaments from Joshua to Revelation, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Louisa Southworth, Lucinda B. Chandler, Anonymous, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara B. Neyman, Frances Ellen Burr, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, and Letters and Comments in an Appendix, by Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mary A. Livermore, Frances E. Willard, Mrs. Robert G. Ingersoll, Irma von Troll- Borostyani, Mrs. Jacob Bright, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Anonymous, Susan B. Anthony, Edna D. Cheney, Sarah A. Underwood, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Josephine K. Henry, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Catharine F. Stebbins, Alice Stone Blackwell, Matilda Joslyn Gage, E. T. M., Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others, and the resolution passed by the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, repudiating "The Woman's Bible," together with the discussion thereon. See Press Comments on The Woman's Bible on next page. PRESS COMMENTS ON THE WOMAN'S BIBLE The comments are right up to date.—Cincinnati Tribune. The most humorous book of the year.—The Hartford Seminary Record. Of all possible books this is perhaps the most extraordinary possible. —The Week, Toronto, Canada. A very clever analysis of passages relating to the sex.—Public Opinion, N. Y. City. The new Woman's Bible is one of the remarkable productions of the century.—Denver News. A unique edition of the Scripture. An extraordinary presentment of Holy Writ!—Denver Times. The work is unique. Its aim is to help the cause of woman in her battle for equality.—Beacon, Akron, Ohio. Robert G. Ingersoll is the only person on earth capable of a work equal to Mrs. Stanton's sensation, "The Woman's Bible."—Chicago Times- Herald. The attack of the new woman on the King James Bible will be observed with interest where it does not alarm. But let "The Woman's Bible" and the truth prevail. It may be that Lot himself was turned into a pillar of salt.—Chicago Post. It has come at last, as it was bound to come—the emancipated woman's Bible. The wonder is it has been delayed so long. This is not a blasphemous book.—The Egyptian Gazette, Alexandria, Egypt. The "new woman" has broken out in a fresh direction and published "The Woman's Bible." In it the conduct of Adam, the father of the race, is described as "to the last degree dastardly."—Westminster Budget, London, Eng. One of the most striking protests devised by woman for the purpose of showing her rejection of the conditions under which our mothers lived. It is evidently the mission of "The Woman's Bible" to exalt and dignify woman.—The Morning, London, Eng. We have read some of the passages of the commentary prepared for "the Woman's Bible" by that very accomplished American woman and Biblical student, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They are a great deal more satisfactory than many of the comments upon the same texts that we have read in other and more pretentious Commentaries. Mrs. Stanton's interpretative remarks are shrewd and sensible—Editorial N. Y. Sun. Of man-made commentaries on the Bible we have had sufficient to stock a library and yet they have left room for this commentary by women. These revisers have proved the need of an intelligent examination of the Scriptures from the woman's point of view. The lady commentators are not wanting in a sense of humor—the quality in which biblical critics of the male sex are usually unhappily deficient. There is much that is very funny and very interesting in this new commentary upon the Bible.—The Daily Chronicle, London, Eng. The Standard says, "The Sisterhood of Advanced Women has taken a bold step towards emancipation. It has long groaned under certain implications of servitude contained in a few passages of Scripture, and has, therefore, determined to abolish these disabilities by publishing 'The Woman's Bible.'" It is not only the type that is new. New readings of old passages are given, and the volume contains suggestions to show that the verses about women's inferiority really mean the opposite of the ordinary acceptation. In it Eve is rather praised than otherwise for having eaten the apple. It is pointed out that Satan did not tempt her with an array of silks and satins, and gold watches, or even a cycling costume—the things which some people think most seductive to her descendants—but with the offer of knowledge; a man being of such a lethargic and groveling nature that a similar lofty ambition never entered his mind. Besides, if the fruit was not to be eaten, Eve should have been informed of the fact at first hand, and not through an agent.—Pall Mall Gazette, London, Eng. The above books will be sent, mail prepaid, on receipt of price, by European Publishing Company, 68 Broad Street, New York City. THE WOMAN'S BIBLE PART II COMMENTS ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS FROM JOSHUA TO REVELATION "OH! Rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run. And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun." —The Parish Register. 1898. The Bible in its teachings degrades Woman from Genesis to Revelations. REVISING COMMITTEE. "We took sweet counsel together."-Ps. Iv., 14. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Rev. Augusta Chapin, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Mary Seymour Howell, Josephine K. Henry, Mrs. Robert G. Ingersoll, Sarah A. Underwood, Ellen Battelle Dietrick,FN#4 Lillie Devereux Blake, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Rev. Olympia Brown, Frances Ellen Burr, Clara B. Neyman, Helen H. Gardener, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, Lucinda B. Chandler, Catharine F. Stebbins, Louisa Southworth. FN#4 Deceased. FOREIGN MEMBERS. Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, Finland, Ursula M. Bright, England, Irma Von Troll-Borostyani, Austria, Priscilla Bright Mclaren, Scotland, Isabelle Bogelot, France. COMMENTS ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS FROM JOSHUA TO REVELATION, BY Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Louisa Southworth, Lucinda B. Chandler, Anonymous, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Frances Ellen Burr, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara B. Neyman. APPENDIX. LETTERS AND COMMENTS BY Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Josephine K. Henry, Frances E. Willard, Eva A. Ingersoll, Mary A. Livermore, Irma von Troll-Borostyani, Mrs. Jacob Bright, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Anonymous, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Ednah D. Cheney, Sarah A. Underwood, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Alice Stone Blackwell, Ursula N. Gestefeld, E. M., Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sarah M. Perkins, and Catharine F. Stebbins. Resolution Of National-American Woman Suffrage Association repudiating "The Woman's Bible," and Speech of Susan B. Anthony. Dedicated To The Memory Of Ellen Battelle Dietrick, In Whose Death We Lost The Ablest Member Of Our Revising Committee. PREFACE TO PART II. The criticisms on "The Woman's Bible" are as varied as they are unreasonable. Both friend and foe object to the title. When John Stuart Mill wrote his "Subjection of Woman" there was a great outcry against that title. He said that proved it to be a good one. The critics said: "It will suggest to women that they are in subjection and make them rebellious." "That," said he, "is just the effect I wish to produce." Rider Haggard's "She" was denounced so universally that every one read it to see who "She" was. Thus the title in both cases called attention to the book. The critics say that our title should have been "Commentaries on the Bible." That would have been misleading, as the book simply contains short comments on the passages referring to woman. Some say that it should have been "The Women of the Bible;" but several books with that title have already been published. The Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage says: "You might as well have a 'Shoemakers' Bible'; the Scriptures apply to women as we'll as to men." As the Bible treats women as of a different class, inferior to man or in subjection to him, which is not the case with shoemakers, Mr. Talmage's criticism has no significance. "There's nothing so becomes a man, As modest stillness and humility." Another clergyman says: "It is the work of women, and the devil." This is a grave mistake. His Satanic Majesty was not invited to join the Revising Committee, which consists of women alone. Moreover, he has been so busy of late years attending Synods, General Assemblies and Conferences, to prevent the recognition of women delegates, that he has had no time to study the languages and "higher criticism." Other critics say that our comments do not display a profound knowledge of Biblical history or of the Greek and Hebrew languages. As the position of woman in all religions is the same, it does not need a knowledge of either Greek, Hebrew or the works of scholars to show that the Bible degrades the Mothers of the Race. Furthermore, "The Woman's Bible" is intended for readers who do not care for, and would not be convinced by, a learned, technical work of so-called "higher criticism." The Old Testament makes woman a mere after-thought in creation; the author of evil; cursed in her maternity; a subject in marriage; and all female life, animal and human, unclean. The Church in all ages has taught these doctrines and acted on them, claiming divine authority therefor. "As Christ is the head of the Church, so is man the head of woman." This idea of woman's subordination is reiterated times without number, from Genesis to Revelations; and this is the basis of all church action. Parts I. and II. of "The Woman's Bible" state these dogmas in plain English, as agreeing fully with Bible teaching and church action. And yet women meet in convention and denounce "The Woman's Bible," while clinging to the Church and their Scriptures. The only difference between us is, we say that these degrading ideas of woman emanated from the brain of man, while the Church says that they came from God. Now, to my mind, the Revising Committee of "The Woman's Bible," in denying divine inspiration for such demoralizing ideas, shows a more worshipful reverence for the great Spirit of All Good than does the Church. We have made a fetich of the Bible long enough. The time has come to read it as we do all other books, accepting the good and rejecting the evil it teaches. "There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds." Hon. Andrew D. White, formerly President of Cornell University, shows us in his great work, "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology," that the Bible, with its fables, allegories and endless contradictions, has been the great block in the way of civilization. All through the centuries scholars and scientists have been imprisoned, tortured and burned alive for some discovery which seemed to conflict with a petty text of Scripture. Surely the immutable laws of the universe can teach more impressive and exalted lessons than the holy books of all the religions on earth. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. January, 1898.